5 Case Studies - Some Examples of Questionnaires in Higher Education

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5 Case studies - some examples of questionnaires in higher education Home » Questionnaires In this section, I have reproduced all or significant parts of three questionnaires. They are all currently in use in academic departments in the UK. Questionnaire 1 is a complete questionnaire and is comprised entirely of three open questions. This is an interesting approach but very atypical and it clearly does restrict the type of information that will be gleaned from the responses. I note that students are asked not to detail the worst features of the module but to suggest possible improvements – this is an attractive feature, as it tends to encourage a constructive approach to questionnaire responses. Questionnaires 2 and 3 contained open questions but I have omitted these, choosing to focus on the structure and design of closed questions. Questionnaire 2 is unusual in the degree to which it explores the skills and abilities of the lecturer. Clearly, this is relevant information and can potentially direct teachers to areas of their teaching that they might work on. One reason I like questions of this sort is that students will want to talk about the individual characteristics of lecturers anyway, usually in responses to open questions. This approach imposes some structure to their responses. Note that the questionnaire, like most, asks some questions that will be inappropriate in many lecture situations. For example, lectures are not necessarily a good environment for ‘encouraging student participation’. The strength of questionnaire 3 is its structure. As discussed above, clear grouping of questions under themes is helpful in the design of the questionnaire and helpful to the respondent. In addition, the questionnaire probes areas that most questionnaires do not. In particular, it asks for a certain amount of information on the students’ status and background, which

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